Fossil fuel power generation damages the global environment and is not sustainable. However the current alternatives to fossil fuel power generation including zero-emission, renewable power systems available are prohibitively large, conspicuous, and not cost competitive with fossil fuel power generation due to high capital cost of equipment and poor energy efficiency. Existing heat engines offer cost effective power generation options in high temperature large power applications, however in low temperature, low power applications these heat engines suffer from high losses in efficiency and high capital cost per unit of power produced. Current power generation equipment is not viably applicable for the large global reserve of low temperature heat sources. These heat sources include solar thermal as well as the large amounts of waste heat arising from fossil-fuel power generation and other industrial processing. Accordingly, there exists a need to create new methods for generating electrical power from low temperature heat sources efficiently, cost effectively, and scalable for both small and large power applications.